I’ve been reading this forum for several years, but rarely contribute. I thought I would start a money diary to track the net worth of our family, establish some goals, and benefit from others poking holes in my family’s finances. I’ve modeled this off of nobleea’s excellent money diary thread.
I am 32, wife is 33, we have 2 young kids, and we live in Edmonton. My wife and I both work full time. Me as an engineer in the oil and gas sector and my wife in HR in the public sector. Our individual incomes are essentially the same and our gross household income is $245K.
Long term goals:
Achieve 1,000K net worth by end of 2018.
Pay off mortgage by end of 2020.
Catch up on TFSA. Between the wife and I, we have about $54K of contribution space.
Retire at 54 (me), wife at 55 (when she hits her DB pension’s magic number).
Goals for 2016:
Max out RRSP contributions. (automatic bi-weekly deposits, on track)
Max out RESP contributions. (automatic bi-weekly deposits, on track)
Contribute $5,500 each to TFSA. This is the last bucket to fill up after all the others, see note below. ($4,460 each to date)
Goals for 2017:
Max out RRSP contributions. (automatic bi-weekly deposits)
Max out RESP contributions. (automatic bi-weekly deposits)
Contribute $5,500 each to TFSA.
Assets:
House - $446,185 (assume inflation increases of 0.13%/mo, based off annual property tax assessment year-to-year)
SUV - $18,525 (2013 model year. I depreciate it $175/mo)
Car - $7,225 (2009 model year. I depreciate it $75/mo)
Non-Registered Portfolio - $16,195 (work share purchase plan, I sell when ~$4K vests and put against mortgage, see notes below)
DC Pension (mine) - $92,720 (contribute 4% of salary, company puts in 6%)
RRSP (mine) - $86,190 (Couch Potato at Questrade)
DB Pension (wife) - $161,540 (based on rough extrapolation of annual statements)
RRSP (wife) - $19,635 (CP at Questrade)
TFSA (mine) - $21,460 (some cash, some CP at Questrade)
TFSA (wife) - $17,750 (some cash, some CP at Questrade)
Cash - $4,645 (I target to maintain no more than $5,500 for cash flow, see note below)
Total Assets $892,070
Liabilities:
House mortgage - $151,945 (Fixed at 3.04%, renewing Feb 2017)
Credit cards - $3,880 (current snapshot, we pay off every month)
Total Liabilities $155,825
Net Worth: $736,250
Some notes:
I am 32, wife is 33, we have 2 young kids, and we live in Edmonton. My wife and I both work full time. Me as an engineer in the oil and gas sector and my wife in HR in the public sector. Our individual incomes are essentially the same and our gross household income is $245K.
Long term goals:
Achieve 1,000K net worth by end of 2018.
Pay off mortgage by end of 2020.
Catch up on TFSA. Between the wife and I, we have about $54K of contribution space.
Retire at 54 (me), wife at 55 (when she hits her DB pension’s magic number).
Goals for 2016:
Max out RRSP contributions. (automatic bi-weekly deposits, on track)
Max out RESP contributions. (automatic bi-weekly deposits, on track)
Contribute $5,500 each to TFSA. This is the last bucket to fill up after all the others, see note below. ($4,460 each to date)
Goals for 2017:
Max out RRSP contributions. (automatic bi-weekly deposits)
Max out RESP contributions. (automatic bi-weekly deposits)
Contribute $5,500 each to TFSA.
Assets:
House - $446,185 (assume inflation increases of 0.13%/mo, based off annual property tax assessment year-to-year)
SUV - $18,525 (2013 model year. I depreciate it $175/mo)
Car - $7,225 (2009 model year. I depreciate it $75/mo)
Non-Registered Portfolio - $16,195 (work share purchase plan, I sell when ~$4K vests and put against mortgage, see notes below)
DC Pension (mine) - $92,720 (contribute 4% of salary, company puts in 6%)
RRSP (mine) - $86,190 (Couch Potato at Questrade)
DB Pension (wife) - $161,540 (based on rough extrapolation of annual statements)
RRSP (wife) - $19,635 (CP at Questrade)
TFSA (mine) - $21,460 (some cash, some CP at Questrade)
TFSA (wife) - $17,750 (some cash, some CP at Questrade)
Cash - $4,645 (I target to maintain no more than $5,500 for cash flow, see note below)
Total Assets $892,070
Liabilities:
House mortgage - $151,945 (Fixed at 3.04%, renewing Feb 2017)
Credit cards - $3,880 (current snapshot, we pay off every month)
Total Liabilities $155,825
Net Worth: $736,250
Some notes:
- I don’t include RESPs as part of assets. We are maxed out for both kids though.
- RESPs are at TD in e-series mutual funds which have a target of 20/30/25/25 in TDB909/TDB900/TDB902/TDB911 (CDN Bonds/CDN Eq./US Eq./Int. Eq).
- We have about $26K for our emergency fund in the TFSAs. About half is cash, half is 70/30 VAB/ZCN at Questrade. This would cover 6 months if both of us lost our jobs.
- We have a live-in nanny for the kids, instead of daycare/day home.
- I’ve been tracking our net worth since October 2013. Our year-over-year NW increase has been ~$120K, hence the goal to have $1,000K at the end of 2018.
- Once we renew our mortgage in February 2017, we’ll be paying $15,700/year against the principal from bi-weekly payments. I’m also targeting lump sums of ~$15,000/year from selling my work shares continually. It should take something like 4.5 years at that pace to pay off the mortgage. I’ll probably renew with a 4-year mortgage (assuming better rate) as $10K of our emergency fund is to cover ~6 months of mortgage payments. We don’t need that if we don’t have a mortgage, so I can pay off the remainder of the mortgage with a lump sum payment!
- Almost everything but the TFSA contributions are automatic deposits. I determined a while ago that $5,500 in our chequing account was a good number to handle the ups and downs in cash flow throughout the year. If, for example, the account is sitting at $3,500 and I get paid $2,500, I’ll transfer the difference ($500) to TFSAs, split evenly between me and my wife’s TFSAs. I also try to pay credit card bills as soon as they are posted.
- Automated RRSP contributions also include Home Buyers Plan payback. I use the RRSP contributions to continually rebalance the Couch Potato ETFs which have a target of 15/30/55 in VAB/VCN/VXC (CDN Bonds/CDN Eq./World Eq.). I do this continually (rather than 1 or 2 times a year) because buying ETFs is free at Questrade.
- The $54K in TFSA contribution space between the two of us is going to take a while to catch up on. So far this year, we are just about to meet the $5,500 each, let alone tackle the $54K of space. This will likely not happen until after the mortgage is paid off.
- My job has an annual bonus but, due to the economy, we haven’t gotten anything in a couple years. If we start getting these again I’ll lump sum it against the mortgage.
- I sell my work shares when ~$4K has vested because the fees to sell are around $40, so I limit my losses due to fees to ~1% or less.